Long Hill Elementary School Newsletter AWS
Long Hill Elementary School Newsletter February 2018
Andrea D’Aiuto, Principal
Jamie Weber, Assistant Pr incipal
A Message from the Principal
Our mascot, Leo the Leopard
January has come and gone and we are well into the second half of our school year. On Monday we had our “LHS Winter Olympics” Opening Ceremony Assembly. I encourage each student to complete the Olympics Incentive. The Olympics are a great time to teach our children about diversity and how this event can bring people from around the world together. At LHS we are also encouraging our students to learn more about their own nationalities and the countries their families are from. At LHS, we have been finding new and innovative ways to encourage reading and writing with our students and staff! During arrival time, the hallways are full of discussion as students are trying to figure out our analogies of the week. Our WordMasters challenge has taken on a life of its own. Our third and fourth grade students have become experts
of the word that is worn around their neck. These words spark conversations among students and staff throughout the building. Friday afternoons are filled with anticipation as our “Weekly Reader Superstars” are announced and get the opportunity to choose a book from Mrs. Mulligan’s “Readbox”. Our LHS staff and students “Love to Read” boards demonstrate to the community that reading is a lifelong adventure! So many great things are happening at LHS and I am proud to be the principal of this wonderful learning community!
Upcoming Events Thursday, February 8 & Friday, February 9 – Kindergarten Registration – call for appointment Thursday, February 15th – Jump Rope For Heart for Grades 1-4 Friday, February 16th – Monday, February 19th – No School – Winter Recess Tuesday, February 20th – School Resumes Monday, February 26 & Tuesday, February 27 – Kindergarten Registration – call for appointment
LHS School Newsletter
February 2018
Kindergarten News Kindergarten has been a busy learning zone! Every day we practice all of our decoding strategies and we continue sounding out to read unfamiliar words and are now learning how to retell stories. We are also almost finished with learning how to write all of our capital letters and are practicing sounding out to write. Math is exciting
because we are practicing with addition and subtraction. We also learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to changing laws for equality of all human beings.
First Grade News
Kindergarten Registration Dates Thursday, February 8th Friday, February 9th Monday, February 26th Tuesday, February 27th
Great things are happening in grade one! In Reader's Workshop, we are learning about nonfiction features, and will soon apply our new learning to conduct research. In Writer's Workshop, we have learned to write about our opinions in a convincing way. In math, we are having loads of fun measuring objects with standard and non-standard units. In social
studies, we learned about Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream, and came up with dreams of our own. Science has had us very excited about the three states of matter! Fun February concepts to look forward to: informative writing, engineering tasks, place value, American presidents and the Olympics!
Second Grade News Please contact the main office at 203-929-4077 to schedule your appointment.
Second Graders are working hard as we approach the 100th day of school! In Reader’s Workshop, we are analyzing the elements of our fiction stories. We are learning many different strategies in Math to help us add and subtract bigger numbers with quickness and accuracy. We are actually performing science experiments in Writer’s Workshop and writing lab reports about our findings! In Science, we are
studying technology and using the engineering design process to build and test bridges.
LHS School Newsletter School Newsletter
Grade Level News
Page 3 2018 of 4 February
Third Grade News In third grade Reading, we will continue to learn how to use nonfiction reading strategies. Children will see why authors use a variety of text structures to organize ideas about a topic for different purposes. Children will also use their prior knowledge to gain insight about a topic and better understand the author’s point of view. Point of view will relate to their study of persuasive writing as students share their opinions about various topics. The current third grade Math unit is all about exploring fractions. The
Fourth Grade News In Reading, investigating text structure and implementing it as an author has filled our month. Students realized that authors choose specific formats to present information in the most effective manner. These concepts have directly carried over into Writer’s Workshop, where we are concentrating on informational pieces. In Math, our unit in division is complete but the concepts of both multiplication and division will loop back consistently throughout our year. We are now exploring fractions. This year the students will add to their fraction knowledge by
children are learning that fractions are numbers that represent equal parts of a whole, and they are learning to represent fractions on a number line. Discuss how fractions are used in everyday life with your child. Don’t forget that IXL offers great practice and review of skills presented in class.
Follow us on Twitter Mrs. D’Aiuto: @DAiutoAndrea
adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and comparing fractions. In Social Studies we continue to focus on the regions of the United States. Throughout the year students will investigate regional landforms, climate, and resources. Science has taken on a current events theme with the recent oil spill in the Naugatuck River. Our engineers are learning the techniques Environmental Engineers use to cleanup oil spills and will design their own cleanup procedures. The culminating event will be to actually implement their procedure on a mock oil spill.
Mrs. Weber: @JWeberAP
LHS School Newsletter
February 2018
News from the Math Specialist, Mrs. Keene Students have begun to learn about fractions. Assist in their understanding of fractions at home by allowing your child to help find equal shares. Equal shares can easily be found in foods such as pizza, cake, brownies, or candy bars. For younger students ask them to tell you if there is an equal amount or not. For older students, ask them to tell you what fraction is 2 slices of the pizza or 1 piece of cake. When you are using a recipe, encourage your child to read the amounts needed for each ingredient. Fractions can also be found around the home with measurement. Support the idea that fractions are part of a whole by showing your student the space between whole numbers on a ruler or measuring tape. If you have dominos around the house you can have students create fractions by using the two sides of the domino. In 3rd and 4th grade students learn how to compare fractions and can work to determine which fraction is larger.
Reading News from Mrs. Mulligan and Mrs. Saas
Brrr…this winter has been cold so far. There is nothing cozier than snuggling up with a good book. There are many ways to instill a love of reading in your child. The following are a few ways to help you get through these frigid months. •
Make reading a regular activity in your home.
•
Make reading a part of your daily life, and kids will learn to love it. Children love to visit the public library and bookstores with their family. Setting aside time to read with your child will help them to become lifelong readers. Set aside some time when everyone turns off the TV and the web and does nothing but read. Make it fun, too. There are many books that have been turned into movies. Families can watch the movie and compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the two. Add some popcorn, and you have a fun filled night! The point is to make reading a regular enjoyable part of your family routine.
•
Promote writing. Literacy involves reading and writing. Having books and magazines available for your child is a good idea, but it’s also helpful to have pencils, crayons, markers, and paper. Encourage your child to write. One way to do this is to write notes or short letters to them. The letters can be about the characters in stories they read or the writer can rewrite the story in a different way. It won’t be long before he or she is trying to write back to you. Listen to your child read. When books come home from school, it’s important for the reader to read them with an adult. If your child is reading choppy, making mistakes or repeating words, have them read it again. Adults can also read the story to them and in doing so, they will model proper fluency. Studies show that this kind of repeated oral reading makes students better readers, even when it is done at home.
LHS School Newsletter
February 2018
Friendly Reminders Students need to be present and on time for school to maximize their learning. Students with excessive tardies and absences, will be referred to our truancy officer.
Any student that arrives after 9:00am MUST be accompanied into the school and signed in by a parent or guardian. Students are NOT to be dropped off once the doors are closed after arrival time.
If you are dropping off something for your child (backpack, lunch, homework, etc) , the main office will get it down to your child. We will not call students down to the main office to receive the item from the parent as this interrupts classroom instruction. The Winter Olympics Challenge was sent home to all K-4 students on Monday, February 5th and is due on Tuesday, February 20th. We encourage all students to participate in this exciting incentive.
From the PTO Thank you so very much to those parents and volunteers that participated in “JA in a Day!” The students had a fun time having their parents and special volunteers teaching in the classroom for the day. A special thank you to Jenny Meeker and Jennifer Sanborn for their work with organizing this Junior Achievement event. Also, a shout out to local Marissa’s Deli for their help in providing lunch for our JA volunteers that day. The 2017/2018 yearbook order forms have been sent out. If you would like to order a yearbook, please do so NOW as late orders will not be accepted and yearbooks CANNOT be purchased at a later time. Please have all orders in by Friday, February 16th.
Keep collecting those BOX TOPS! We have a submission date coming up in April, so make sure that you are saving them! Upcoming dates: PTO General Meeting - 2/6 at 6:00 p.m. Mixed Bag Fundraiser - rolling out in March PTO General Meeting - 3/6 at 6:00 p.m. Spring Fling Dance (for girls and their special guy) - 3/16Boys Event - TBA
Please make sure that you are on our PTO FB group page for up-to-date school and PTO news: www.facebook.com/groups/LongHillPTO.
565 Long Hill Avenue Shelton, CT 06484 Phone: (203)-929-4077 Fax: (203)-929-8250 School Hours: Regular Day: 9:00am – 3:45pm Early Dismissal: 9:00am - 1:50pm Delayed Opening: 11:00am – 3:45pm
Andrea D’Aiuto, Principal
Jamie Weber, Assistant Pr incipal
A Message from the Principal
Our mascot, Leo the Leopard
January has come and gone and we are well into the second half of our school year. On Monday we had our “LHS Winter Olympics” Opening Ceremony Assembly. I encourage each student to complete the Olympics Incentive. The Olympics are a great time to teach our children about diversity and how this event can bring people from around the world together. At LHS we are also encouraging our students to learn more about their own nationalities and the countries their families are from. At LHS, we have been finding new and innovative ways to encourage reading and writing with our students and staff! During arrival time, the hallways are full of discussion as students are trying to figure out our analogies of the week. Our WordMasters challenge has taken on a life of its own. Our third and fourth grade students have become experts
of the word that is worn around their neck. These words spark conversations among students and staff throughout the building. Friday afternoons are filled with anticipation as our “Weekly Reader Superstars” are announced and get the opportunity to choose a book from Mrs. Mulligan’s “Readbox”. Our LHS staff and students “Love to Read” boards demonstrate to the community that reading is a lifelong adventure! So many great things are happening at LHS and I am proud to be the principal of this wonderful learning community!
Upcoming Events Thursday, February 8 & Friday, February 9 – Kindergarten Registration – call for appointment Thursday, February 15th – Jump Rope For Heart for Grades 1-4 Friday, February 16th – Monday, February 19th – No School – Winter Recess Tuesday, February 20th – School Resumes Monday, February 26 & Tuesday, February 27 – Kindergarten Registration – call for appointment
LHS School Newsletter
February 2018
Kindergarten News Kindergarten has been a busy learning zone! Every day we practice all of our decoding strategies and we continue sounding out to read unfamiliar words and are now learning how to retell stories. We are also almost finished with learning how to write all of our capital letters and are practicing sounding out to write. Math is exciting
because we are practicing with addition and subtraction. We also learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to changing laws for equality of all human beings.
First Grade News
Kindergarten Registration Dates Thursday, February 8th Friday, February 9th Monday, February 26th Tuesday, February 27th
Great things are happening in grade one! In Reader's Workshop, we are learning about nonfiction features, and will soon apply our new learning to conduct research. In Writer's Workshop, we have learned to write about our opinions in a convincing way. In math, we are having loads of fun measuring objects with standard and non-standard units. In social
studies, we learned about Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream, and came up with dreams of our own. Science has had us very excited about the three states of matter! Fun February concepts to look forward to: informative writing, engineering tasks, place value, American presidents and the Olympics!
Second Grade News Please contact the main office at 203-929-4077 to schedule your appointment.
Second Graders are working hard as we approach the 100th day of school! In Reader’s Workshop, we are analyzing the elements of our fiction stories. We are learning many different strategies in Math to help us add and subtract bigger numbers with quickness and accuracy. We are actually performing science experiments in Writer’s Workshop and writing lab reports about our findings! In Science, we are
studying technology and using the engineering design process to build and test bridges.
LHS School Newsletter School Newsletter
Grade Level News
Page 3 2018 of 4 February
Third Grade News In third grade Reading, we will continue to learn how to use nonfiction reading strategies. Children will see why authors use a variety of text structures to organize ideas about a topic for different purposes. Children will also use their prior knowledge to gain insight about a topic and better understand the author’s point of view. Point of view will relate to their study of persuasive writing as students share their opinions about various topics. The current third grade Math unit is all about exploring fractions. The
Fourth Grade News In Reading, investigating text structure and implementing it as an author has filled our month. Students realized that authors choose specific formats to present information in the most effective manner. These concepts have directly carried over into Writer’s Workshop, where we are concentrating on informational pieces. In Math, our unit in division is complete but the concepts of both multiplication and division will loop back consistently throughout our year. We are now exploring fractions. This year the students will add to their fraction knowledge by
children are learning that fractions are numbers that represent equal parts of a whole, and they are learning to represent fractions on a number line. Discuss how fractions are used in everyday life with your child. Don’t forget that IXL offers great practice and review of skills presented in class.
Follow us on Twitter Mrs. D’Aiuto: @DAiutoAndrea
adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and comparing fractions. In Social Studies we continue to focus on the regions of the United States. Throughout the year students will investigate regional landforms, climate, and resources. Science has taken on a current events theme with the recent oil spill in the Naugatuck River. Our engineers are learning the techniques Environmental Engineers use to cleanup oil spills and will design their own cleanup procedures. The culminating event will be to actually implement their procedure on a mock oil spill.
Mrs. Weber: @JWeberAP
LHS School Newsletter
February 2018
News from the Math Specialist, Mrs. Keene Students have begun to learn about fractions. Assist in their understanding of fractions at home by allowing your child to help find equal shares. Equal shares can easily be found in foods such as pizza, cake, brownies, or candy bars. For younger students ask them to tell you if there is an equal amount or not. For older students, ask them to tell you what fraction is 2 slices of the pizza or 1 piece of cake. When you are using a recipe, encourage your child to read the amounts needed for each ingredient. Fractions can also be found around the home with measurement. Support the idea that fractions are part of a whole by showing your student the space between whole numbers on a ruler or measuring tape. If you have dominos around the house you can have students create fractions by using the two sides of the domino. In 3rd and 4th grade students learn how to compare fractions and can work to determine which fraction is larger.
Reading News from Mrs. Mulligan and Mrs. Saas
Brrr…this winter has been cold so far. There is nothing cozier than snuggling up with a good book. There are many ways to instill a love of reading in your child. The following are a few ways to help you get through these frigid months. •
Make reading a regular activity in your home.
•
Make reading a part of your daily life, and kids will learn to love it. Children love to visit the public library and bookstores with their family. Setting aside time to read with your child will help them to become lifelong readers. Set aside some time when everyone turns off the TV and the web and does nothing but read. Make it fun, too. There are many books that have been turned into movies. Families can watch the movie and compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the two. Add some popcorn, and you have a fun filled night! The point is to make reading a regular enjoyable part of your family routine.
•
Promote writing. Literacy involves reading and writing. Having books and magazines available for your child is a good idea, but it’s also helpful to have pencils, crayons, markers, and paper. Encourage your child to write. One way to do this is to write notes or short letters to them. The letters can be about the characters in stories they read or the writer can rewrite the story in a different way. It won’t be long before he or she is trying to write back to you. Listen to your child read. When books come home from school, it’s important for the reader to read them with an adult. If your child is reading choppy, making mistakes or repeating words, have them read it again. Adults can also read the story to them and in doing so, they will model proper fluency. Studies show that this kind of repeated oral reading makes students better readers, even when it is done at home.
LHS School Newsletter
February 2018
Friendly Reminders Students need to be present and on time for school to maximize their learning. Students with excessive tardies and absences, will be referred to our truancy officer.
Any student that arrives after 9:00am MUST be accompanied into the school and signed in by a parent or guardian. Students are NOT to be dropped off once the doors are closed after arrival time.
If you are dropping off something for your child (backpack, lunch, homework, etc) , the main office will get it down to your child. We will not call students down to the main office to receive the item from the parent as this interrupts classroom instruction. The Winter Olympics Challenge was sent home to all K-4 students on Monday, February 5th and is due on Tuesday, February 20th. We encourage all students to participate in this exciting incentive.
From the PTO Thank you so very much to those parents and volunteers that participated in “JA in a Day!” The students had a fun time having their parents and special volunteers teaching in the classroom for the day. A special thank you to Jenny Meeker and Jennifer Sanborn for their work with organizing this Junior Achievement event. Also, a shout out to local Marissa’s Deli for their help in providing lunch for our JA volunteers that day. The 2017/2018 yearbook order forms have been sent out. If you would like to order a yearbook, please do so NOW as late orders will not be accepted and yearbooks CANNOT be purchased at a later time. Please have all orders in by Friday, February 16th.
Keep collecting those BOX TOPS! We have a submission date coming up in April, so make sure that you are saving them! Upcoming dates: PTO General Meeting - 2/6 at 6:00 p.m. Mixed Bag Fundraiser - rolling out in March PTO General Meeting - 3/6 at 6:00 p.m. Spring Fling Dance (for girls and their special guy) - 3/16Boys Event - TBA
Please make sure that you are on our PTO FB group page for up-to-date school and PTO news: www.facebook.com/groups/LongHillPTO.
565 Long Hill Avenue Shelton, CT 06484 Phone: (203)-929-4077 Fax: (203)-929-8250 School Hours: Regular Day: 9:00am – 3:45pm Early Dismissal: 9:00am - 1:50pm Delayed Opening: 11:00am – 3:45pm
